Matt

It's a tight fit for a lot of people in the back family room where the home theater is set up, but we had a LOT of people in there for the 2005 Rose Bowl game. I enjoy my 57" Sony HDTV w/surround sound goodness, thank you very much! Get me some 7-layer nacho dip, some suds, and I'm good to go!

Play-in game for the 8th spot. Problem solved, kind of.

Terry Bowden did it, too: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=Au...o&type=lgns

The way the BCS is currently set doesn't seem to have the NCAA bleeding money, so how would it dramatically affect them in a playoff? The Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Suger aren't going to crown a national champion. Why not "promote" two of those bowls (say, the Cotton and Citrus) to the "quarterfinals" and rotate the semis among those bowls on a year-to-year basis. For example: Fiesta Bowl (1) Ohio State - 42 (8) Boise State - 17 Citrus (2) Florida - 37 (7) Wisconsin - 21 Orange Bowl (3) Michigan - 38 (6) Louisville - 13 Cotton Bowl (4) LSU - 24 (5) USC - 27 Re-seed after this round (if needed), then your semis would be: Sugar Bowl (1) Ohio State (5) USC Rose Bowl (2) Florida (3) Michigan Then the NC game a week after that...

It's college football, so I acknowledge that it can't be completely void of some form of polling -- but it can be fixed so the 2006 Michigans, 2004 Auburns and 2002 USCs don't get shafted. No doubt some of the teams you listed would feel jilted if we had 8-team playoff. IMO, ideally it'd be 16 teams but that doesn't seem remotely feasible. However, more often than not it's deciding the top 4 teams that seems the most troublesome. While not perfect, it's a lot better in giving all of those top four teams a shot than denying them that. It hurts for the lower-seeded teams, but to me it's a lesser evil that a Rutgers, Texas, or Tennessee misses out rather than a Michigan or a 2004 Auburn. And I still steadfastly don't believe it'd render regular-season results meaningless. Is there more potential "wiggleroom"? Yes. But saying that the UM/OSU this year would've been meaningless is rather short-sighted since I don't think that potential seedings would be irrelevant for those that figure to make it in. I never said a college football playoff would be infallible, but it most certainly would be the absolute closest thing to crowning a true national champion than anything that's been used previously.

Agreed. Although I think the case would've been harder for OSU to make following a loss since it would've occured at the 'Shoe.

I was just thinking the same thing. Tim keeps harping on Michigan not doing jack this year so, other than holding off Michigan by 3 at home on the last game of the season, OSU's other "marquee" win was beating No. 19 Texas on the road? Let's not whine about schedule strength.

I don't believe for a second that all of those voters thought Florida was No. 2 when compared to picking head-to-head against Michigan (OSU loss notwithstanding, just comparing teams.) They didn't want a rematch. As quoted earlier in this thread, the ESPN writer asked Vanderbilt -- the common opponent -- who was the better team and there was no hesitation in their answer. Going by the polls, sure, and a lot of Big 10 teams had down years. We'll see how good the SEC really is when January rolls around. I didn't say that. I didn't see anything out of Florida the last two weeks (stumbling against Florida, backing their way to the SEC championship in a slopfest of a game and a gift from Fish) that would legitimately justify bumping Michigan from the second spot. Oh, please, now you just sound like a blithering Sparty fan. Shouldn't have been that close because of turnovers? Damnit! I forgot those don't count! That game came down to Shawn Crable's braindead play on 3rd down. If that play doesn't happen, with the way the Michigan offense was playing at that stage of the game, there's no doubt in my mind that they would've won that game. Don't give me this inane "they had 3 turnovers! ZOMG!" crap. One of the national pundits was right, America does have a pathetically short attention span. And how often has Ohio State and Michigan entered their annual meeting undefeated and 1-2 in the nation? Thanks. They would have this year, so what exactly is your argument here? ----- One amusing aside was ESPN's SportsNation poll. One of the questions was "Who should play Ohio State for the National Championship?" and Florida had the vote 51% to 49%. Later in the series of questions was "Which defense will give OSU more problems?" - Michigan: 57% - Florida: 43% "Which offense will give OSU more problems?" - Michigan: 55% - Florida: 45% Isn't that interesting. (This was when I checked last night, there were around 220,000 votes or so.) Despite all the bantering here, everything boils down to these points for me: - If pollsters really didn't feel that Michigan was the No. 2 team in the nation on November 19th, they should've dropped further than No. 2. - How many of you feel that, on a neutral site, Florida would beat Michigan? (Vegas line currently favors Michigan by a touchdown.) - USC beats UCLA and Florida beats Arkansas your BCS top 4 is: (1) OSU, (2) USC, (3) UM, (4) UF. Funny how that works, isn't it?

What you just mentioned here is exactly what is WRONG with the system. The BCS should NOT be determined due to politicking, or who "deserves a shot", or whatever. That is NOT what it is for. You're voting for who you feel are the best two teams in college football. Period. If pollsters wanted to rule out a rematch then Michigan shouldn't have remained No. 2 following 11/18. It was brought up in the newspapers, but if Michigan/Ohio State had happened earlier in the season and the teams continued to win out after that -- would've Florida passed them? Nope. While I'm definitely biased, I'd think you'd have an incredibly hard time finding a majority of football minds out there that actually feel that Florida -- or any of the other 1-loss teams -- are better than Michigan. So throw the "Michigan had their shot" crap out of the window -- you're not voting for who had their shot or who is a conference champion and who isn't. You're voting for the two best teams in the nation. That's how the system is set up. If USC had won on Saturday and Florida beat Arkansas, do you really think that Florida would've still leapfrogged Michigan? Nope. Heck, even Vegas oddsmakers favor Michigan by a touchdown if they ever faced Florida. OSU should have fun playing with their sacraficial lamb. If you're looking at a playoff system with 4-8 teams I don't know how you could even fathom saying that ANY game still "doesn't matter." A single loss could very well bump you beyond the No. 8 spot. It's high time that college football's DIV-I championship is annually decided on the field and not on a campaign trail. You don't think Auburn still burns over getting shafted a few years ago?

Ding-Ding-Ding... we have a winner. The way they have it set up this year, with the 5th game instead of rotating the "major" bowl venue, would help, too... You'd just have to "promote" two other bowls if once you got down to eight teams, and rotate the semis. (Or, hell, have the semis be the four "major" bowls and then hold the semis and the championship on the same field... A la the Fietsa Bowl and the BCS championship. That'd be some hellacious logistics (integrity of the playing field for the semis, extra day off potential, etc.) but somethings got to be better than what we've got now. While I love the tradition of the Rose Bowl, it seems to be growing more and more archaic and has been slightly phased out by the BCS, anyway. 16-team playoff and call it a day. Or something. ANYTHING but a BCS system that gradually every year just shows you how @#$#@% up it is.

Well, you wouldn't have just a 4-team playoff. At minimum you'd be talking 8. The best bullet point to that ESPN article was Wojciechowski's last: • Florida has earned the right to play Ohio State. Absolutely true. But so has Michigan. Ask the coaches at Vanderbilt (the Commodores played both Michigan and Florida this season) who is the better team, and the consensus pick -- privately, of course -- is the Wolverines. Florida has more speed and a handful of players to die for, they say, but Michigan is more physical, would control both sides of the line of scrimmage, have wonderful wide receivers, and are led by a senior quarterback who doesn't make many mistakes. Ask them who would give Ohio State the better game, and you'll get the same answer. Tuberville voted Ohio State, Florida and then Michigan on his final ballot. "But I watched Michigan this year," he said. "Heck, I think they could beat anybody. But that's the way the system is. It's a screwed-up system." Michigan never had that chance. It was 11-1 on Nov. 18. It was 11-1 on Dec. 3. But between then and now the Wolverines apparently became the cellulite queens and somehow lost the swimsuit portion of this ridiculous BCS beauty pageant .

What's the point of any football-related playoff then? The regular season games would still mean something -- with USC's loss on Saturday they would've barely sneaked in if there was an 8-team playoff. The biggest point to me is that who-plays-who can't ultimately be left up to people making decisions based conjecture, politicking or a "it's not who's the 2nd best team, it's who hasn't had 'their shot.'" There'd have to be some kind of playoff system where you're major conference champions get in and the rest would have to (gulp) left to some polling method. It would boil down to picking out the best 8 or 16 teams in the nation -- granted, some teams on the bubble in the middle of the rankings would get screwed, but this isn't a case where pollsters voted and felt that, on November 19th that Michigan and Ohio State were the top two teams in the nation... ... and the No. 2 team is getting punished for not playing the last two weeks. Well, one team (USC) was exposed for the fraud it was passing Michigan last week. Looks like we'll see the other on January 8th. Always cheer for Big 10 teams during Bowl season.

Oh, they will -- there's no doubt about that.

And why not? Other than potentially fudging with exams and lessening the "value" of some big bowls, it's the only way you can legitimately claim that a team ran the gauntlet and is No. 1. Having who plays Ohio State, as Pat Forde put it, come down to conjecture is a joke -- and I'd have to echo what Herbstreit said as well. Looks like I'm a Buckeyes fan for a week. Enjoy the cakewalk to the championship because I don't think Florida is anywhere in the same league. Not to mention I'd have a GREAT laugh if the SEC teams that make it to bowls fair poorly. Lovely.

Since college football doesn't have a playoff system the whole "they deserve their shot" doesn't hold a lot of weight with me -- the BCS is supposed to match the top 2 teams in the country. To me, there (obviously) isn't a doubt who that is... ... With that said, I'll be very annoyed if come Janaury 9th Florida was embarassed by Ohio State and Michigan wiped the floor with USC. Can we just have a G.D. Playoff System already?

800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 Enjoy!

800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 Enjoy!

November's will be out today.

Do Wainright and Reyes get the same excuse? Because to me, that's all it is. It's boneheaded errors that a ROOKIE shouldn't even make. That game was a joke. My grandmother could make that throw to first! UGH. It's just utterly amazing how this team can just a complete reversal from a week ago -- and I agree about Eckstein -- he needs to lay off the caffeine.

No, Manningham will be the reason the Buckeyes lost. He's going to be back a week or two before Armageddon.

The most amusing part of making that avatar was doing a GIS for "dead cardinal" and I kept getting pages and pages of the Vatican variety... Nice game tonight. I was praying that Leyland would leave Rogers out there for the 9th and keep Jones away, but noooooo.... I've got to have the heart-attack. UGH. As for Rogers' stuff: I wouldn't doubt it was tar, grease, or whatever. Not at all. He's used something every start he's had in the postseason. If you watched after the 1st inning on close-ups of Rogers' head, whatever he was using magically moved to an area on his cap just behind his left ear.

Ah, the joys of TiVo. I've got all of the Tigers' playoff games this year saved and transferred onto my laptop. (Soon to be commercial-free edited and burned on to DVDs.) You'll love it. I can't even count how many times I replayed Magg's clincher over, and over, and over.... As for the Cards starting out with their worst pitcher in Game 1, well, that could've been said for the Tigers in their first two series'. There'll be big-time pressure on Robertson in Game 3 going up against Carpenter. It had better damn be with a 2-0 Detroit Series lead. Oh, and Ken Rosenthal picked the Cards in 7. (No reason, he just wrote "just because".)

I'm just a Lions good luck charm. Every game I go to they win...

[attachmentid=265] That was the greatest celebration afterward that I have ever seen! Fans getting sprayed with champagne? A Trooper getting it? AWESOME!

Wooohoooo!!! (This kind of reminds me of the Wings' Cup run in 1997 -- the excitement, the buzz around town. But with the Tigers sucking for so long over the last 20 years this season has come out of the blue -- no "almost" seasons like 93, 94 & 95, and that's what makes it even more mind-blowing.)